The toilets in parks can seem like a minor element of a larger public work. Landscape engineers, architects, and contractors can participate in the building of a particular building.
Every transition poses a straightforward yet important concern:
Who’s responsible for ensuring one stage is linked to the next correctly?
This is a more valuable question than a portfolio.
Look out for Handoffs
Imagine a plan for a bathroom. The dimensions are right and the style of the outside is decided and everyone loves it.
Image credit: romtec.com
Then engineering begins. The engineer must make a change that affects the layout. The change can affect a component’s specification and therefore the purchase. In the future, the contractor will find that the assumption in the design doesn’t match with what was provided.
Each of these issues does not mean someone made an error of a major magnitude. They show how coordination can become difficult when responsibility is fragmented among multiple groups.
The best park design candidate needs to be evaluated for more than just creativity. Understanding code, accessibility requirements and the components will help you integrate the design into the end product.
Consider What the Proposal Really Includes
Two construction proposals that seem similar may have totally different objectives.
A package could comprise a whole building. One could cover preliminary design support and drawings, renderings, and engineered plans.
If you just compare the lowest price, but without knowing why they are distinct, it could be false.
Romtec offers preliminary estimates and designs at no upfront cost, along with drawings of specifications, design and renderings of bid packages. After approval the bid package, the process moves on to engineered plan sets and final submissions.
This provides owners and design teams a clearer path for moving from an idea toward an erected building.
Custom Requirements Must Be Identified Early
Rarely, public projects are carried out under the same conditions.
A community might require fixtures and materials that are green. One community may want specific architectural themes. Landscape architects might require customized siding, unique colors or even a roof design that visually connects the restroom to other park structures.
These decisions have a greater impact than the appearance. These decisions can affect the components and documents, procurement, engineering and construction.
By addressing special requirements as early as possible, the project team can integrate them in a thoughtful manner rather than retrofitting them once important decisions have been made.
Construction Knowledge Modifies the Design Conversation
The best park restroom builder for a particular project should understand that a drawing eventually has to become a physical structure.
Romtec designs, produces products, supplies and builds structures for public use. Romtec can offer building packages that can be integrated into larger construction projects or provide turnkey installation.
That design-to-construction experience creates a practical perspective: decisions made at a desk eventually have consequences on a jobsite.
Examine the entire journey, not just the destination.
A completed bathroom doesn’t reveal the whole coordination that occurred prior to the opening day.
Park owners see the building. Visitors view the building. Project teams are involved in all the decisions that led towards construction, including estimates, design, documentation engineering and approvals.
This is why selecting a park building partner shouldn’t begin with a question like “Do you like their buildings?”
A more useful question is:
This company can help us in moving from the place we imagine to a building we are able to open to the public?